His Alone (For Her #2)

“You did it on purpose.”


“Most of it, yes. I wanted to see you riled up. To see if I could pull out of you even a tenth of the passion I had. You were so tough that day. But I could see past that concrete wall you had in front of you. I saw that there was something special underneath. That behind the tough exterior was a tender woman who was afraid to let someone love her.”

She nods, and I bring her hand up to my mouth, kissing her wrist.

“That day changed my life, Paige. Seeing you there was incredible, but before I handed you the paperwork and you left, we had that moment.”

She looks at me and nods, remembering it, too.

“I held on to it, not wanting you to leave. I knew once you had the information, you’d be gone, and I didn’t know when I’d see you again.”

“I had that feeling, too,” she confesses.

“I had to let you go, and it was the hardest thing I’d ever done. But when I reached out and touched your cheek, I knew you were the one. I couldn’t let you go without that one touch, because I had to have something. I knew when I saw your picture you were it for me, but having you in front of me and being able to connect made it real.”

I reach over her to a bedside table and pull out the small box. I lean back and place it between us, letting her look at it.

“That day after you left I bought this. Because I knew that it was yours, and no matter what you chose, this would always belong to you. I would never have another woman in my life if you wouldn’t have me, so I waited until you couldn’t turn me away.”

“Ryan,” she whispers, but doesn’t move.

“I’ve already called you my fiancée, and in truth you have been since that first day we met. You just didn’t know it.” She laughs as the tears start to fall, and I kiss her wrist again. “I married you in my heart the night we first made love. One day, I want to make it legal, but in my soul, I’m already there.”

“You really are a caveman,” she says, and I laugh with her. She’s definitely not wrong.

“I should get on one knee and ask you in a field of butterflies or something.” She smiles and shakes her head like I’m ridiculous, but I know she loves it. “But I can’t take the chance of you not saying yes. So you’ll marry me, Paige. You and I will be together until the end of time. We’ll make babies, have fights, make up, laugh, cry, and spend every moment of every day as one.”

“Oh God,” she says, and closes her eyes.

“I promise to give you the family you deserve and the one you’ve always wanted, deep down. I promise to give you a hard time and be a pain in your ass, because you really do love it.”

She tries to smack my chest, but I tighten my grip on her wrist with one hand and open the ring box with the other. I take out the simple band with the solitaire stone and place it on her ring finger. Once it’s there, I kiss it and look into her eyes.

“I promise to love you without hesitation, without exceptions and without a single doubt. You are mine until the earth stands still and there’s not a breath left in me.”

She looks down at the three-carat ruby, and shock is clear on her face. It’s the one she saw the day we first met. There was a jewelry store right outside, and I watched as she left the building and stopped in front of the window. She stood and stared at it for a moment, but I could see something in her eyes. I found out later what it truly was. I saw all the hopes and dreams she’d ever had placed on that stone. She walked away that day dismissing its possibilities, but I saw more. And I was going to do everything I could to give it to her.

She nods, not saying a word. She doesn’t need to speak, because there’s nothing to say. My heart belongs to her, and hers to me.

I roll her on her back and move on top of her. My lips connect with hers, softly this time, more tender than when we made love on the floor. This time it’s slow and sweet, and I spend hours worshiping every inch of her body. When we find release, it’s more passionate than anything I’d ever dreamed possible.

Afterward I hold her, and I know what true love is.





Chapter Twenty-Nine


Paige



* * *





“OH MY GOD, we’re moving out of this building,” I moan, trying to crawl from the bed. Can I not go one day without someone banging on a door and waking me up? I don’t make it one step and Captain is pulling me back onto the bed and caging my body with his. He’s giving me his wide morning smile. We’re going to have to work on this perky morning thing he’s got going on.

“I’ll get it,” he says, before taking my mouth in a soft, lazy kiss, making me melt back into the bed. I don’t care that someone is banging on his front door at God knows what time. He pulls his body mine, and I make to grab at him, but he keeps moving as I latch around his back and he stands.

“Kitten, I love you hanging on to me, but I’m not answering the door with you naked unless you have a death wish for whoever’s on the other side.”

I smile, nipping at his neck before I drop my feet to the floor and let him go.

He grabs a pair of boxer briefs from his dresser, cursing when the banging on the front door comes again.

“Jesus. It’s not even morning,” I growl.

“It’s almost noon,” Captain corrects. I glance over at the clock on his nightstand. Wow. He must have really gone at me last night. When I look back at him, I can see him thinking the same thing with a smirk on his face. His eyes roam over my naked body, clearly ready to do it all over again.

I bend down, picking up his shirt and handing it to him.

“You put this on unless you want me to claw someone’s eyes out.” He smiles even bigger as he takes the shirt from me and slides it over his head. I start digging for some gym shorts. Captain has a great chest, but his legs are my weakness. His thick thighs might be the hottest thing about him.